Striped or Moosewood Maple              A-ser pen-sil-VA-ni-kum

• Broadleaf deciduous small tree or large multistemmed shrub, 15-20 ft (4-6 m) high with a similar spread, short trunk with ascending branches, uneven, flat-topped to rounded crown.  Young stems are greenish brown or reddish, and branches green with conspicuous, long, vertical, greenish white stripes, which are absent on mature trunks.  Leaves opposite, simple, 12-20 cm long and wide, usually with 3 shallow lobes that point forward (occasionally unlobed, e.g., neoformed leaves), tip acuminate, margin serrulate, bright green, with petioles 3-8 cm long; fall color clear yellow to golden.  Flowers small, yellow to yellow-green, in slender, pendulous clusters (racemes).  Fruit about 1-2.5 cm wide, wings spread at a wide angle, on long stalks, 2.5 cm, (peduncles), in pendulous clusters.
• Part shade.  Best in well-drained, cool, moist, acidic soil.  Has a shallow and wide spreading root system.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 3      Native range from Nova Scotia to Minnesota and south to Georgia.
• Acer pensylvanicum is one of about 14 Acer species known as a Stripebark or Snakebark Maples, most are native to Asia.  It is the only Snakebark Maple native to North America.  Some of the more commonly available species include: A. capillipes, A. davidii, A. rufinerve and A. tegmentosum.
• A few cultivars of Acer pensylvanicum exist, with ‘Erythrocladium’ being the best known.   Twig bark has a bright coral to salmon-red color in winter, turning dark yellow in summer.  Reportedly the bright red winter color does not diminish with age.  This selection was discovered in Germany before 1904, but it is rather rare in commerce in part because it is difficult to propagate.